[B-Greek] 1 Cor 15:22

Harold R. Holmyard III hholmyard at ont.com
Sun Jun 13 16:07:04 EDT 2004


Dear George,

>hWSPER GAR EN TWi ADAM PANTES APOQNHiSKOUSIN, hOUTWS EN TWi XRISTWi 
>PANTES ZWiOPOIHQHSONTAI
>
>As "No man is an island" so no text [well, almost] is an apothegm so 
>this cannot be divorced from its context.  Is it really the first 
>mention of Adam?  Paul was a "Pharisee of the Pharisees", a student 
>of the eminent Gamaliel.  It is specifically recounted (Acts 22.2) 
>that he spoke Hebrew (as would be expected -- try to imagine a NT 
>scholar who knew no Greek ! ).  He would have been well-aware that 
>in Hebrew ADAM = ANQRWPOS in Greek.    Therefore
>
>DI' ANQRWPOU QANATOS, KAI DI' ANQRWPOU ANASTASIS NEKRWN
>Through man [scil, Adam] came death, and through man [came] the 
>resurrection of the dead
>
>in the preceding becomes pertinent and even forms a parallel. 
>Additionally, the following must be considered
>
>hEKASTOS DE EN TWi IDIWi TAGMATI . . . hOI TOU XRISTOU EN THi PAROUSIAi AUTOU
>each in his own group [i.e. TOU XRISTOU or TOU ADAM] . . . those who 
>are Christ's at his coming.
>
>This would seem to set up a teaching of the "Two Ways" which makes 
>its appearance in the early Church Fathers.
>
>"There are two ways of doctrine and authority, the one of light, and 
>the other of darkness. But there is a great difference between these 
>two ways."
>
>Epistle of Barnabas, Chapter 18

HH: Thanks, that makes a lot of sense. So I assume you're saying that 
the definite article with ADAM is an unusual sort of article of 
previous reference, or at least that it has a referential function.

					Yours,
					Harold Holmyard




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